{"id":48293,"date":"2018-05-10T12:13:02","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T16:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huntsville.dopperonline.ca\/?p=48293"},"modified":"2018-05-10T12:13:02","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T16:13:02","slug":"province-approves-removal-of-tax-rebates-for-vacant-properties-in-muskoka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/province-approves-removal-of-tax-rebates-for-vacant-properties-in-muskoka\/","title":{"rendered":"Province approves removal of tax rebates for vacant properties in Muskoka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The District of Muskoka announced today that it has received authorization from the Province for its lower-tier municipalities to eliminate the Vacant Unit Rebate, effective January 1, 2018.<\/p>\n<p>The Vacant Unit Rebate program allows property owners who have vacancies in commercial and industrial buildings to apply for a tax rebate. In Muskoka, the program provided a 30 per cent reduction to the property taxes levied if the unit met eligibility criteria.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; margin-right: 14px;\"><strong><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45658\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone><\/strong><\/div>\n<p>Huntsville and the other Muskoka lower-tier municipalities held public meetings and consultations late in 2017 <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/town-staff-recommend-elimination-tax-rebate-vacant-properties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">regarding elimination of the rebate<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Feedback from the business community and analysis from municipal staff determined that the vacant unit rebate program benefited relatively few property owners for a proportionately large cost and did not encourage steadfast occupancy of commercial and industrial buildings,&#8221; noted a District media release. &#8220;The rebates were effectively funded by the rest of the property tax base.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of Finance has amended <em>O. Reg. 325\/01: Tax Matters &#8211; Vacant Unit Rebate<\/em> to exempt lower-tier municipalities in the District of Muskoka from the requirement to provide tax rebates for property with vacant portions for 2018 and subsequent taxation years.<\/p>\n<p>In June 2017, Mayor Scott Aitchison and Councillor Brian Thompson also suggested that owners of vacant properties should be made to pay higher taxes. Read that story on Doppler here: <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/should-property-owners-pay-more-tax-if-their-buildings-are-empty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Should property owners pay more tax if their buildings are empty?<\/em><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Don\u2019t miss out on Doppler! Sign up for our free newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/dont-miss-out-on-doppler\/\"><u>here<\/u>.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><broadstreet-zone zone-id=\"45657\" keywords=\"\" soft-keywords=\"true\" zone-alias=\"\"><\/broadstreet-zone>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The District of Muskoka announced today that it has received authorization from the Province for its lower-tier municipalities to eliminate the Vacant Unit Rebate, effective January 1, 2018. The Vacant [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1903,"featured_media":38616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-48293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-breaking"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Province approves removal of tax rebates for vacant properties in Muskoka - Huntsville Doppler<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doppleronline.ca\/huntsville\/province-approves-removal-of-tax-rebates-for-vacant-properties-in-muskoka\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Province approves removal of tax rebates for vacant properties in Muskoka - Huntsville Doppler\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The District of Muskoka announced today that it has received authorization from the Province for its lower-tier municipalities to eliminate the Vacant Unit Rebate, effective January 1, 2018. 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